Malaak Compton Rock, Host, Triple Negative Breast Cancer Fundraiser with Guest Speaker Soledad O'Brien

Last night, co-founders of MyWorkButterfly attended a fundraiser hosted by supporter of MyWorkButterfly, the brilliant Malaak Compton-Rock. There were close to 500 people who gathered together in support of this important cause. Soledad O'Brien capped off the night speaking to all those who had joined together in memory of Nancy Block-Zenna. We learned that Nancy, afflicted by the disease, died just 2 1/2 years after diagnosis. Her only wish was for a foundation to raise money to aid in the research of this deadly disease. Malaak shared that "Nancy would be happy to know what this foundation has accomplished in a short time."

It was announced by Malaak that Breast Cancer Groups “Teamed Up” with $6.4 Million Grant to Advance Promising Treatments for Aggressive, Triple Negative Breast Cancer Unprecedented Partnership between the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation and Susan G. Komen for the Cure® will Fund Collaborative Team at University of Alabama at Birmingham. * Funds raised by the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation(TNBCF) will be used to jump start a promising $6.4 million dollar research project at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Cancer Center. The unprecedented Susan G. Komen for the Cure Promise Grant co‐funded by the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation marks the first time that Komen for the Cure has collaborated with another non-profit organization to fund national research, and will be the largest single grant to date focused on triple negative disease – an aggressive subtype of breast cancer that doesn’t respond to targeted therapies that have been found to be effective in other forms of breast cancer. The grant to the University of Alabama will go to a team of researchers that has shown in early (pre‐clinical) studies that an antibody (drug) they have developed might be an effective targeted therapy for triple negative tumors. The five‐year Komen/TNBCF grant will fund a series of experiments that bring together a unique team of medical oncologists, basic researchers, pathologists, imaging specialists, and patient advocates, who will look at the biology behind how this antibody helps kill triple negative tumors and how it might be used for patients in the clinic.

We were excited to see many familiar faces such as Allison, Sharon, Jennifer and Andrea from TNBC, Lisa Monfried from Lemon and Dierdre from 201 Magazine. We were happy to see MyWorkButterfly's very own Laura Yurica.

MyWorkButterfly co-founders Terry Starr and Bradi Nathan were glad to be a part of this important evening.

Congrats Malaak and the entire TNBC team!

* Press Release, TNBC, 4.29.09

Working Moms Get an Online Resource: Parsippany-based Site Offers (Global) Job Board & Social Network

PARSIPPANY -- Bradi Nathan gave up an advertising management job at Marie Claire to become a stay-at-home mother to her two children for eight years. Terry Starr twice returned to a lucrative career in recruitment marketing after just three months maternity leave when her two children were born.

Today, the two have partnered to offer mothers who take divergent paths to the office a place to meet and share their frustrations, challenges and successes.

The Livingston mothers launched the Parsippany-based myworkbutterfly.com in January, an online social networking and job search site for working mothers. Using their experience living on the opposite sides of the mommy wars, the 38-year-old Nathan and 50-year-old Starr have built an online site that seeks to address the needs of both kinds of working mothers -- those who never left the workplace and those seeking to re-enter after an extended leave.

The site -- free to use -- boasts a job board with 10,000 listings, an online career coach, a psychotherapist and interviews with celebrity moms who, despite their high-profile careers, can relate to the same mother's guilt about working while someone else watches their child.

"We're all mothers, we're all trying to do it all well," Nathan said. "We want this to be a rallying place for women helping and supporting other women."

Everything on the site relates to women's needs on their journeys from motherhood to work, they said.

With more than 300 pages of original content discussing everything from staying fit and beauty tips to finances and elder care, Starr and Nathan sought to offer mothers one site that fits all their needs.

Like butterflies, working mothers are often on the move, flitting from one responsibility to the next, and the site, Starr said, is meant to be a constant support system.

Within four months time, the site has 1,800 members, 36,000+ page views a month and is getting access to the likes of Kathie Lee Gifford, Malaak Compton Rock (comedian Chris Rock's wife) and Danielle Monaro, a radio DJ for New York's Z100. The three working mothers sat down for video interviews for the site.

This month features Monaro, who talks about how she wrestled with returning to work and leaving her 6-week-old son with a nanny.

She still feel pangs of guilt when she has to miss an important moment like her now 3-year-old son's Halloween parade.

"Why can't I be there," Monaro said. "Unfortunately I can't do it, I can't do everything."

Myworkbutterfly.com also caught the eye of the 12,000-member Business and Professional Women, a national women's advocacy and networking organization.

The organization was looking to partner with a social networking site in order to reach a younger generation, Blandford said.

BPW was attracted to the site Nathan and Starr created because it brings together a variety of resources, Blandford said.

"It supports mothers, women in transition and women looking for flexibility in their life," said Ayoka Blandford, spokeswoman for BPW.

Laura Bruno can be reached at (973) 428-6626 or lbruno@gannett.com